Philae lander finds 16 organic compounds on comet

By Dave Gilbert, CNN

Updated 12:54 PM ET, Fri July 31, 2015

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae has been found! – The Rosetta spacecraft's high-resolution camera took this image of the Philae lander on September 2, 2016. The lander is wedged into a dark crack on a comet, named 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, hurtling through space. The discovery comes less than a month before the Rosetta mission's end.

Hide Caption

1 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae is wedged in a dark corner of Rosetta – "We are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team. She was the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from the Rosetta probe, according to the European Space Agency.

Hide Caption

2 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae found using images from Rosetta – The image is detailed enough that viewers can pick out features of Philae's 3-foot-wide (1 meter) body. Even two of its three legs can be seen.

Hide Caption

3 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

One of the primary objectives of the Rosetta mission was to drop the Philae lander onto the comet. The probe was successfully deployed in November 2014, becoming the first probe to land on a comet. But Philae failed to grab onto the comet and bounced around. It fell silent a few days later. Then on June 13, 2015, Philae came out of hibernation and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. This photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter, after the lander started its descent to the comet.

Hide Caption

4 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of a jet of white debris spraying from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko on July 29, 2015. Mission scientists said this was the brightest jet seen to date in the mission. The debris is mostly of ice coated with dark organic material.

Hide Caption

5 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on July 8, 2015 as the spacecraft and comet headed toward their closest approach to the sun. Rosetta was about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from the comet when it took this image.

Hide Caption

6 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after it came out of hibernation on June 13, 2015. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta.

Hide Caption

7 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit.

Hide Caption

8 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015, while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center.

Hide Caption

9 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015.

Hide Caption

10 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta Mission is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center.

Hide Caption

11 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015.

Hide Caption

12 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released.

Hide Caption

13 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014.

Hide Caption

14 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014.

Hide Caption

15 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power.

Hide Caption

16 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet.

Hide Caption

17 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph.

Hide Caption

18 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later.

Hide Caption

19 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation.

Hide Caption

20 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet, Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun.

Hide Caption

21 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014.

Hide Caption

22 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down.

Hide Caption

23 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section.

Hide Caption

24 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image, captured August 7, 2014, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus.

Hide Caption

25 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6, 2014.

Hide Caption

26 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target.

Hide Caption

27 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

Hide Caption

28 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA.

Hide Caption

29 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch.

Hide Caption

30 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff.

Hide Caption

31 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet.

Hide Caption

32 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth.

Hide Caption

33 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter.

Hide Caption

34 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system.

Hide Caption

35 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible.

Hide Caption

36 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins.

Hide Caption

37 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background.

Hide Caption

38 of 39

Photos:Rosetta: The comet chaser

After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014.

Hide Caption

39 of 39

Story highlights

Discovery supports a theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets

Philae lander bounced onto the surface of comet 67P in November 2014

ESA says the mission has been extended to next year when the Rosetta orbiter will most likely land on the surface of the comet

London (CNN)Could life on Earth have been kick-started by a comet strike? A startling discovery by the Rosetta comet-chasing mission has added fresh evidence to suggest that it is possible.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which is leading a consortium that includes NASA, announced that the mission to explore Comet 67P has discovered 16 organic compounds, described as "carbon and nitrogen-rich."

And it adds that some of the compounds "play a key role in the prebiotic synthesis of amino acids, sugars ... the ingredients for life."

"For example, formaldehyde is implicated in the formation of ribose, which, ultimately features in molecules like DNA.

Read More

"The existence of such complex molecules in a comet, a relic of the early Solar System, imply that chemical processes at work during that time could have played a key role in fostering the formation of prebiotic material," it says.

Commenting on the findings, lander system engineer Laurence O'Rourke told CNN it was an important discovery.

"If you apply energy to such organic compounds ... like a comet hitting a planet ... it could lead to the creation of amino acids which make up proteins, which are the basis of life itself," he said.

The bounce turned out to be a happy accident, as Philae was protected from the scorching sun. In the first hours of its mission, Philae returned the data that has proved to be so exciting.

Although contact was later lost when it ran out of power, the probe came back to life and transmitted a signal to the Rosetta orbiter when enough sunlight fell on its solar panels to revive it.

Project scientists knew there were problems with the probe's transmitters, and contact was lost again in early July. But O'Rourke says that Philae is a "robust machine" and there is hope of getting a new signal.

The mission is now approaching an important landmark called perihelion, the point in its orbit where the comet is closest to the sun. Comet 67P and its accompanying spacecraft are traveling at nearly 75,000 miles per hour and will come closest to the sun on August 13 before it swings around and begins its outward journey once again. This comet returns every 6.5 years.

As the comet approaches the sun, increasing solar energy warms up frozen ice, turning it to vapor. The European Space Agency's website explains that the gases drag away the comet's dust, appearing as a tail extending sometimes hundreds of thousands of miles into space.

"Perihelion is an important milestone in any comet's calendar, and even more so for the Rosetta mission because this will be the first time a spacecraft has been following a comet from close quarters as it moves through this phase of its journey around the Solar System," Matt Taylor, an ESA Rosetta project scientist, said on the mission website.